Canine Distemper Virus Infection in the Free-Living Wild Canines, the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and Jackal (Canis aureus moreoticus), in Croatia

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a single stranded negative-sense RNA virus, morbillivirus usually affecting carnivores. The disease is highly contagious, posing a threat to both wild and domestic canids. Like other members of the family Paramyxoviridae, the virus encodes six proteins: nucleocapsid, phospho-, matrix, fusion, hemagglutinin and polymerase proteins. This study investigated the prevalence of this disease in Croatia, in which 176 red foxes and 24 jackal brain samples were collected during a Rabies surveillance in 2021-2022. Only four red foxes (2.27%) tested positive using real-time RT-PCR. All the jackals tested negative for the canine distemper. The CDVs confirmed here belong to the Europa 1 genotype; genetically similar to the CDV sequences obtained from Croatian, Italian and German red foxes, and German barger, Hungarian polecats and Hungarian and German dogs.

(WWN)